Knifeless brain radiosurgery performed

Coimbatore, Sept 24: A 40-year old woman has undergone a ''knifeless'' (radio) surgery for removal of a brain lesion at a city hospital in a procedure claimed to have been used for the first time in the country.

Doctors at the Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital (KMCH) today said this was the first time in the country that geographically complex Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) had been treated by stereotactic radio surgery (SRS) with 1,000 Monitoring Units Image Guided Radio Therapy (IGRT) with LINAC technology.

In SRS, a high dose radiation beam is delivered precisely over the well-demarcated brain lesion and the key feature of the procedure is non-interference with quality of life of the patient, who can resume normal activities in a matter of hours, KMCH Chairman Dr Nalla G Palanisamy told reporters.

The woman underwent the radio surgery with she being fully awake and aware of the whole procedure which lasted 15-20 minutes, Palanisamy said.

Dr Kannan, Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center, KMCH, said the surgery was performed for the first time in the country using Rapidarc (equipment) with the versatality of Varian Trilogy which increased accuracy and shortened the treatment time. The very high dose rate of 1000 Monitoring Units (MU/per minute), facilitated deep beam penetration with rapid completion of treatment, to deeper tumours previously considered untreatable.

PTI